"The view provides a spectacularly detailed view of the largest
impact crater that we've driven to yet," said planetary scientist
Jim Bell of Arizona State University in a press
release 5 July.

The solar-powered, golf-cart-sized rover, called Opportunity,
wrapped up exploration of the half-mile-wide Victoria Crater in
August 2008. It then rolled for the next three years to reach the
14-mile-wide Endeavour Crater.

But the plucky robot must hunker down during Martian winters
that last six Earth months, as Opportunity needs to have enough
power to warm its fragile electronics. So from 21 December 2011
through 8 May 2012, Nasa instructed the robot to stay put and take
817 images.

The space agency stitched those photos together to craft a
near-wraparound image of Opportunity's overwintering spot, a rocky
outcrop near the 4-billion-year-old Endeavour Crater that
scientists named "Greeley Haven."

Nasa's next car-sized rover called Curiosity arrives at Mars on 5
August, but it won't have to overwinter like Opportunity. Instead
of relying on feeble sunlight, it will use a thermoelectric nuclear
battery to provide it with decades' worth of power.